Family Planning: The Best Thing for Kenya

FP has been a real passion of mine for a long time. Here are the main reasons:

Family planning is simply the best way to improve conditions in Kenya 

Population growth in Kenya is unsustainably fast. This makes meaningful progress nearly impossible in almost every sector of development. 

For example, maternal healthcare. I just spent 6 months helping launch a world-class maternal healthcare organization. I’m really proud of our progress and feel lucky to be part of it. I recently read this New York Times article, about how FP is another extremely cost effective method of saving mothers at birth. 

Before that, I spent 2 years building ToughStuff (who is doing really well lately, btw). Turns out that FP is about 6 times more cost effective at reducing carbon emissions than solar!

Many believe that educating girls is the key to slowing population growth. I agree. The key to educating girls? You guessed it: Investing in FP is more effective than investing in the Kenyan education system itself. Source: USAID.

In fact, this type of data can be found to show Family Planning’s positive impact on almost every sector of development. And the data becomes more and more convincing the longer into the future you consider. The below graph shows the savings for Kenya in 5 areas by investing in FP over 6 years. Imagine the savings over a generation or two. 

Anecdotal, but a quick conversation with a few Kenyan families will show the personal effects of population growth: the more kids you have, the less money you have. A woman taught me a Kenyan saying last week, “Rich people count their money. Poor people count their children.”

Secondly, women want FP. No convincing needed

National data shows 25% of women have an unmet need for family planning in Kenya. That’s 1 out of 4! My personal research supports this as well. Hundreds of mothers have told us that they don’t want another child but they have no choice. The demand for family planning already exists - no education or advertising needed.

Side note - Sex and your body are about as core to someone’s rights as it gets. Unfortunately, there are a lot of women who don’t get much of a say in their sex lives. I would love to help some women regain control of something women should always have the final say in anyway.

Another side note - More FP leads to less abortions. Correlation proven:

There's lots of interesting demographics in Nairobi from a FP perspective:

• Women at universities – the vast majority, around 80% according to early surveys, of whom are currently only using emergency pills for contraceptives. Some as often as weekly.
• Women who work in factories – six days a week makes access to FP tough.
• Women who meet in groups, such as microfinances, chama’s, church groups, sports, etc., are easy to access and accustomed to pooling funds.
• Middle and upper income Nairobi women – some of whom have really fun and healthy sex lives and enjoy talking about that stuff (I mean, who doesn’t?). 

For all these groups I see major gaps in the current healthcare system around the same two issues. One is privacy, confidentiality and how it relates to the men in their lives. The other issue is judgment; many women feel so judged that they resort to the FP options that you can get over the counter without seeing a doctor (namely, emergency pills).

Possible business models could be a healthcare clinic designed specifically for any of these demographics and their needs in women’s health and FP. Another could be mobile clinics that go to factories or universities. Maybe a healthcare professional at your doorstep idea for women’s groups. Any models designed at the upper income bracket could be an excellent way to drum up local support and to earn income that could subsidize efforts aimed at other targets.

Government

They’re behind family planning full force and the capability to deliver is growing. Article in our national paper.

Technology

It’s not perfect and results depend highly from woman to woman, but we have lots of great options now, all available in Kenya.

Knowledge

FP actually isn’t that hard. The population council has built an unbelievable guide on how to do counseling and education, provide the care and how to train your staff to do it. They even translated to Kiswahili. It has all the answers. It’s like we’re cheating!

If you love this stuff, get in touch with me. NickSowden21@gmail.com And do some perusing of the links below and throughout this post: 

• http://www.unfpa.org/public/home/factsheets/pid/3856.
• http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_health/pop/techareas/repositioning/mdg_pdf/kenya.pdf
• http://www.gatesfoundation.org/global-health/Documents/family-planning-strategy.pdf

Hey boss: Hire more Kenyans

Dear bosses and managers in East Africa: If you want to be more successful, I think you should hire more Kenyans -- and hire them in more senior positions.

In Nairobi, lots of really great organizations that are heavily weighted toward expat staff, especially in their management positions. And I think that’s a bad move. My motivation here is not affirmative action or empowerment or anything related to ethics (although I do believe making more local hires is the right thing to do). I think that hiring more Kenyans will make organizations more successful, full stop.

Five reasons why you should be hiring more Kenyans:

1. By and large, Kenyans are awesome: Smart, fast, creative, well-educated and effective. Natural entrepreneurs.
2. Local knowledge: This asset should not be underestimated  -- and it’s even more important in more senior positions.
3. Local connections and networks: Who did you go to university with?
4. Longevity: Most Kenyans aren’t in Kenya for a six months or two years. They have more time to offer your organization. Hire a great Kenyan and watch them climb the ranks.
5. Expats are surprisingly expensive. Even volunteers and interns. Add up all the costs (flights, housing, food, your management time and the loss of knowledge when they go home) and you could probably get a qualified Kenyan for the same price.

PS. This blog is focused on Kenyan companies, but this is also true world-wide. Kenyans rock in East Africa and Kenyans rock in NYC, London, Hong Kong, etc.

My guess is that there are four reasons why many organizations don’t hire Kenyans:

1. The people in charge don’t know that many Kenyans.
2. Managers can get international volunteers for “free.”
3. There are cultural differences – for many, it takes time to learn how to work well with different cultures.
4. There’s a perception that Kenyans lack ability, desire or integrity. Check these perceptions twice. There are certainly specialized jobs for which you may need an expat, but those cases are a lot fewer than many people think. And desire and integrity are specific to the individual -- just like anywhere else in the world.

How does one become a great Kenyan employer? I don’t know, but place lots of great Kenyans on your team -- and then ask them. Take this seriously. It’s a mistake to assume that if you don’t know how to do something then it’s impossible or not worth attempting.

Where to get started? Use recruiters. Great Kenyans don’t leave one job until they have another one. Good recruiters have access to talented people who are not yet actively on the job market. Good recruiters are really affordable, when you consider the value of great people and the low risk -- you only pay a small deposit until the recruiter has helped you hire the right person. I recommend Career Connections [LINK: http://www.high-fliers.com/html/overview.html] (definitely the best for very senior positions) and Impact Personnel (lillian@impactpersonnelkenya.com).

Another option is universities. Hire young and wicked-smart kids fresh out of the school. They’ll be running a successful company in 5 years, so it might as well be yours. (I’ll place some university suggestions at the end of the post.)

I've used Kenyans throughout this post, but I think Ugandans, Tanzanians, Rwandese and Burudians are all generally pretty bad ass. I also think that, despite the five East African nations being culturally very different, skilled professional East Africans can perform well in any East African country.

In fact, a good friend of mine, with 20 years experience in Unilever Africa’s management, suggests hiring great people from neighbouring countries, especially for management positions. The reason? The region’s different cultures offer different strengths. When a Ugandan comes aboard a Kenyan company, for example, he has seen fewer cases of corruption and nepotism, and his perspective may benefit his new organization.

Relying on expats is not the best way to run a business in Kenya. So put some resources behind hiring, training and retaining Kenyan staff. I think that those who do will see huge advantages over their competitors.

University contact information:

USIU
Dorothy Ikamba,
Tel: 3606311/3606162
Email: dikamba@usiu.ac.ke

Strathmore University: 

Jatieno@strathmore.edu

Nairobi University
Bernard Mwangi: Bernard.kiige@uonbi.ac.ke
Dean's Office
0722581144

Update: A colleague just asked, "So what are you doing about it?"

I've been lucky enough to hire dozens of Kenyans and East Africans over the last few years. While I've made a few bad hires and had tough experiences, the vast majority have been fantastic people who have gone on to do great work. I'll keep that going. This blog is definitely personal and not a reflection of Jacaranda Maternity, but we are hiring lots now and over the next few months, so stay in touch or tell a friend. 

Share Everything With Everyone All The Time

I believe organizations can be much more successful if they share all their information with all their people and even customers early and often. Reasons:

1. It's encouraging and exciting

In fact, I find very few things discourage people faster than feeling like a secret is being kept or feeling like an outsider.

2. It helps your people make better decisions

3. Its a great teaching tool and quickly develops your people 

If you give people lots of info at the time things are happening, such as the decisions you’re facing and then why you made them, people learn so much more than just hearing the news afterwards. You can train people just by clueing them in on what you're doing. Also help them to understand you better and be better able to respond to things in the same way that you would.

4. Its fun for our everyone. Especially in a start up

5. Its a sign of trust which translates to loyalty

This is especially true when you haven't yet made up your mind about a big decision. Trust your people enough to tell them and you have them on your team for a long time.

6. Your people can help you make big decisions if they know you're facing them

~~~

This is all true for your customer base as well. 

Many brands have built diehard fans by sharing information that wouldn't usually leave the company. Similarly, customers find this exciting, it informs customers on how they can help you best, its a great way to get feedback and really builds deep loyalty. Though many think this will give secrets away to competitors or make customers go running, brands like Southwest, Pandora and Chipotle have leveraged difficult times and situations to their advantage by letting everyone know.

Create a ‘this is my company’ feel by giving customer information, asking their opinions and even asking them for help when you need it.

~~~

Times you should NOT share information:

Sure, some things need to be kept secret. Bush’s baked beans can’t just share their secret recipe, the CIA can’t share their agent’s names and Steve Jobs is never going to let us know what product is coming next. Fine, no objections here. Organizations should simply be very sure they have a good reason not to share info, because you’re losing so many benefits by not sharing. 

Common reasons people don’t share information, but should reconsider:

1. The information will scare people

90% of managers say, 'I won't tell them until we know  ________." They are trying to protect their employees or keep them from getting scared. But in reality these fears are blown out of proportion - your teams aren't going to quit or start looking for jobs or start spreading rumors, etc. (especially because they'll be loyal to you if you have a culture of sharing information with them). The other 10% of managers know trying times are a powerful opportunity to teach, build loyalty and get feedback from your people. 


The other potential scare is about employees leaving to other opportunities. Some keep employees shielded so they don't up and leave. I can speak from personal experience here - no one leaves a boss who cares about you enough to send you good opportunities! You should literally send good job descriptions you find to your people. They'll never leave you, and if they do they'll be more helpful to you in your next job than the current. This is only a worry if you're a terrible boss. Dear terrible bosses: don't share good opportunities with your employees. 

2. Competitors will get the information

Dear 95% of organizations who think their competitors are tapping their phone calls - Here’s a secret for you: Your competitors don’t even take the time to check your website. Also, your website probably has more information that you think on it, so if you really don’t want to give them any info you should shut that site down. Chill out.

“People can steal your idea buy can’t steal your execution.” –Some smart guy somewhere

Finally, what’s the best way to keep an edge over your competitors? One way is to build customer loyalty and diehard fans that won’t leave when someone else comes up with a good idea. So, share your information with them, they’ll reward you.

3. Employees may take the information and use it against us after they leave

First of all, if you trust your employees, they are MUCH more likely to be loyal to you and not leave. Second, if you’ve been sharing information with them, it’s more likely they’re taking a promotion somewhere else and leaving on good terms. They probably still like you.

Finally, you can’t steal something that’s free. If an employee gets their hands on something you don’t want them to have, what do they do? Make a back-up on their home computer. If an employee gets their hands on the same information because you want them to have it? They probably read it, learn and then forget about it. It’s just not interesting.

4. Customers will react negatively to your profits

As long as you’re providing something people like (check – are they buying it?), most customers want you to make profit. People want their favorite businesses to do well, make money, expand and offer more products and services.

NGOs and social enterprises of the world – Profit equals scale. Make more money (or lose less money) and you have more money to expand, invest, market, etc. Also, the less you need to fundraise. Finally, make a lot of money and competitors will start flooding into your area. The end result? More organizations doing what you do and more end results to your customers (beneficiaries).

5. Salaries

Touchy issue. Frankly, unless you have something to hide (your cute secretary is making more than they should, you’re making 200k and golf 4 times a week, etc) there’s few reasons to keep this secret. Yes, many will call me crazy, but think about it. If you’ve earned your position, you should feel free to say your salary. If people question it, that’s a sign you need to get back to work.

What if one employee feels underpaid? Well, if there is a reason they are underpaid, give them some advice on how to improve and get better. Go back to school, work hard and get a promotion or get the same experience as so and so. If there’s no reason they are underpaid, maybe you need to fix that.

6. Information overload slows employees down

Ways to improve this:

A. Send (FYI) at the begging of emails that are for your information only. People know they don’t need to read it if they are too busy. Do this also for (urgent) emails.

B. BCC or CC people on emails. Then create a filter so that emails directly to you show up first and emails where you’re cc’d shows up later.

C. Get a CRM. Salesforce.com is awesome and easy. Then whenever an employee has a question, they can just read about it. And for the love of god, if you have less than 1,000 employees, please no privacy restrictions!

D. Send half-baked notes whenever they are half-baked. Rather than perfecting your notes and sending them once per week or month, just send ‘em out when you write up. Don’t worry about typos (following my own advice here). If you make sharing information a big process it is harder to do and less likely to get done. Just send it.

"Information is like an endless supply of garden tools. Useless you unless you put it in people’s hands." -Some dumb-ass named Nick Sowden

Big News: Just Joined Jacaranda Health

This is my first post in a long time and it’s a good one. As of April I’ve joined forces with the brilliant ideas and people of Jacaranda Health (more like they allowed me to join for some reason. Maybe they’re not so brilliant after all).

We’re aiming to revolutionize the way maternal healthcare is done across the world, starting with one preggers mother in Nairobi at a time.

For those of you who know me even a little bit, I LOVE start-ups. And this is a good one. It’s a great idea, the potential scale and impact is massive and the people behind it are rock stars.

Problem: In many developing countries, and even in Kenya, the maternal death rates are much higher (like 77 times higher) than they need to be.  There are lots of reasons for this including inadequate medical organizations, high costs, difficulty getting medical supplies or equipment, regulatory issues and women who aren’t always informed of all the things they ought to be doing during pregnancy (namely, seeing a medical organization), etc. etc. etc.

Our idea: Very high quality healthcare, focused solely on maternal health, using lots of innovations (technology, marketing, clinical, innovations from around the globe) to make it very efficient and low cost. Like really low cost. In Kenya for example, very nice private clinics can cost $1,000 or more for a delivery. Government hospitals are supposed to be free, but are scary and aren’t actually free ($40ish). There’s a big range of private clinics in between, and the quality ranges widely, often to the really terrible side. Among all that, we’re aiming to do a normal delivery for around $60 at world-class levels of care.

We’re launching very modern clinics that will deliver babies and we’ll be running mobile clinics that take antenatal care (ANC) to our moms where they need it. Each day we’ll go to a school, a church, a factory, etc. and set up shop so Moms can get really professional ANC without traveling. And when more women start coming to early ANC visit, the likelihood of a safe delivery goes way up. And the likelihood that they deliver with us goes up too. (ie, marketing strategy)

Scale: If we can figure this thing out right, we’ll be offering much better care than is currently available at much lower prices. We’re going to grow like gang busters. And if we can make money (or be real close to sustainable), we’ll grow scale even faster. In just 18 months after touching ground in Kenya, ToughStuff is now cranking in across Africa and seeing massive growth (that I can’t really talk about, but it’s big) and Jacaranda could do the same.

And if we grow like crazy we’re going to steal all the damn moms from all the other guys and they’re going to have to start copying us – at least the really good things we’re doing. We’ll attract all kinds of followers and copy cats across Africa and the developing world.

And even bigger impact will come when smart people (the guys know a few already) start doing studies and writing medical journals on us. Apparently that’s how you really impact how things are done on a global scale in the medical world.

People: 

• Nick Pearson, a good friend of mine, invented and founded this thing over a year ago. He’s an ex-Acumen and completely awesome guy. 
• And his wife’s an OBGYN (right?) at UCSF, so she’s big time too, though I haven’t met her yet. 
• Aliya Walji’s running the show in Kenya. She’s ex Grameen Technology (in Ghana with another medical organization) and completely awesome. 
• Tammy Guo is ex-Boston Consulting Group and Stanford and completely average. 
• Jane Adera is a really talented and professional researcher/public health person and awesome and a good Kiswahili teacher. 
• Maryanne Darwinkel and Julius Maina are both very senior and experienced in the Kenya medical field. 
• And several other seriously-qualified people that I haven’t met in person yet are all joining forces to make this thing go crazy. 
• Finally, we’ve put together some real-deal advisors, including two very good friends, Biju Mohandas and Andrew Youn.

One thing I’m really excited about is offering really friendly services. Like, crazy friendly. I don’t know what pregnancy’s like, but I really feel like that’s the time a mom could really use some TLC. And I think we can make the world a better place just by spreading some big smiles when Moms need ‘em. Also, we’ll being offering really comprehensive family planning choices and education for mothers after delivery, which I’m big believer in.

As for ToughStuff, we’ve parted on a great note. All the guys there have been nothing less than fantastic to me. Lots of friends and mentors. And I gave lots and lots of notice, so I think they’re not too annoyed with me. I’m getting better at learning when a company is too big for me to be valuable and ToughStuff is way past that point. We’ve sold well-over 100,000 solar panels, touched more than half a million lives across almost a dozen African countries, won multiple international awards and we’re doing it all as a social business. I can’t say much, but we have some really big news coming up soon, too. It’s really been a dream ride and I’m really confident in their continued growth (which will surely accelerate now that I’m gone.)

As for Rolex – we’re entertaining (begging for) offers now from interested parties (party) who may want to buy (accept) the company. Thanks for asking.

How you can help: Join our mailing list, friend us on facebook and start having more babies! I need customers!

I seem to be making a bit of a career out of this start-up thing (Jacaranda is number 8) and its reallllly nice to be back to the early days. I have to say: this is such a good venture, it almost feels like cheating. Huge global need, great idea backed by amazing people. Hopefully I can find a way to help out. Welp, back to work…

ToughStuff Solar Working on the 100th Object EVER

Really cool support today comes from an unlikely place. The BBC has announced Solar Powered Lamps as the 100th object in their count of the objects of humanity.

No joke. ToughStuff Solar is working in East Africa, Kenya, Madagascar and across Africa to bring people the 100th most significant object in human history. Very exciting to have something we believe in so much be supported by a group with such a wide perspective.

Check out the full story here on the BBC and a summary written here on PR Web.

And if you haven't had time to see the newest video on a ToughStuff Solar Entrepreneur - watch this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ImMvmODA6w

Hope you're working on something you believe in too.

ToughStuff Solar wins Tech Awards 2010

Wow, ToughStuff Solar is feeling appreciated today! We're one of many solar products in Africa and we're doing well with solar in Kenya and solar in East Africa, but the Tech Awards is really nice for us:

ToughStuff is proud to announce that last night we were declared winners of the prestigious Tech Awards that are awarded in Silicon Valley USA. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRG7UjDdv7Y

The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity. The Tech Awards program inspires global engagement in applying technology to humanity's most pressing problems by recognizing the best of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions to address the most urgent critical issues facing our planet. People all over the world are profoundly improving the human condition in the areas of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development through the use of technology. It is the goal of The Tech Awards to showcase their compelling stories and reward their brilliant accomplishments.

Each year, candidates are nominated and then invited to submit applications. Individuals, for-profit companies, and not-for-profit organizations are eligible. International panels of judges review the applications and annually select 15 Laureates. Awards are presented in five categories: Environment, Economic Development, Education, Equality, and Health.


Thanks for everyone who has already mentioned us and this award:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1690442/toughstuff-pharmajet-announced-as-tech-award-laureates
http://money.blogdig.net/archives/articles/September2010/22/ToughStuff__PharmaJet_Announced_As_Tech_Award_Laureates.html
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/press/global-award-enterprise-africa,1470355.html
http://www.imdb.com/news/ni4473147/
http://www.ifvnews.com/inf/toughstuff-wins-top-global-award-enterprise

Spread the word if you can. Thanks. 

This Is A Clue at Elitch Garden's this Summer

OH MAN. I'm super excited to go to Elitch Garden's this summer. As my friends know, I'm a big wimp when it comes to scary rides, but I'm also an expert a solving mysteries (LOL, yeah...).

Check the start of the 120: The Mystery of Mary Elitch's Fortune, from the This Is A Clue Facebook Page:

"Mary Elitch’s fortune…
$120 million strong!
Claimed today by four,
But three liars don’t belong!

Mary Elitch opened her park
120 years ago
And for nearly two decades,
She put on quite a show.
Sadly when she left this earth,
Back in 1936,
Mary’s will disappeared
Leaving her fortune in a fix.
Today four different people,
own a will that claims a stake
But only one will is authentic,
The other three are fake." *Read the rest here.

If this event is anything like the other This Is A Clue events (check out their YouTube page), this is going to be amazing. This is coming from the This Is A Clue guys who do the Denver Mystery Tweet Challenges. Check out www.Twitter.com/ThisIsAClue to follow along. Here's the details of it:

They also just recently got reviewed in Rex and the Beast, which is pretty cool. The guys had really good things to say about it.

Bottom line: Get to Elitch Garden's this summer for the This Is A Clue mystery. See you there.